Ryan Dadoun

Playoff Preview

Western Conference Preview

This is the third time in four years that the Anaheim Ducks have made the playoffs and the second in a row that they’ve captured their division, but they haven’t won a playoff series over that span. The stage seems set for that to change.

They had two of the best forwards this season in Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, who ranked second and fifth in the scoring race respectively.

Although this was one of the better campaigns the duo has ever had, they’ve been stars for years. The problem Anaheim had in the past was that they didn’t have the depth to back them up. That wasn’t the case in 2013-14. The Ducks are going into this series with 10 different players that recorded at least 10 goals and four that surpassed the 20-goal mark.

That’s led to them being the best offense team of the season with an average of 3.21 goals per game. Of course, the Dallas Stars are no slouch in that regard either as they finished 10th with an average of 2.82 goals.

Dallas is hoping that its young duo of Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn can match up against Anaheim’s big two. That’s not an entirely unreasonable gamble, given that Seguin and Benn were only a step behind their Ducks counterparts in the regular season. The deeper into the Stars roster you get though, the harder it is to see them stacking up.

The X-Factor in this series is Teemu Selanne, who has averaged just 14:07 minutes per game. Even at the age of 43, Selanne showed he’s still capable of carrying a team when given the chance while playing for Finland in the 2014 Winter Games. In his last playoff run, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him step up despite a quiet regular season.

After losing to the Detroit Red Wings in seven games in 2013, the Anaheim Ducks should only need five games to advance this time around.

Corey Perry had four goals and seven points in his last six games. He ranked second in the league with 43 goals this season.

WHO'S NOT

Jonas Hiller allowed 11 goals in his last three games. He also has a 3.01 GAA and .889 save percentage in 11 starts since the Olympics.

NOTES

Sheld Souray missed the 2013-14 campaign with a wrist injury. Defenseman Mark Fistric is dealing with a lower-body injury while forward Tim Jackman isn't likely to participate in the first round due to a broken hand.

The Ducks ranked second in the league with a 5-on-5 goals for/against ratio of 1.39. That was fortunate for them because they were just 22nd with the man advantage and 13th when it came to killing penalties.

The Dallas Stars failed to make the playoffs for five straight seasons from 2008-09 through 2012-13, which represents the franchise's longest drought since they debut in 1967-68 as the Minnesota North Stars.

LOS ANGELES KING VERSUS SAN JOSE SHARKS

This is the third time in four years that the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks are meeting in the playoffs. Both have taken a series, with the Sharks winning in six in 2011 and the Kings coming ahead in seven in 2013. Last year’s series was particularly entertaining with five of the seven contests being decided by just one goal.

Jonathan Quick was the difference in 2013 and the Kings need that to be the case again this year. He was the sole winner of the Jennings Trophy, which goes to the goaltender(s) that play in at least 25 games with the team that allows the fewest goals in the regular season, and he’s got a reputation for elevating his game in the playoffs.

As usual, the San Jose Sharks will be countering with a strong offense, but the dynamics of it are a bit different this time around. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau were dominant, per the norm, but Joe Pavelski broke out with 41 goals and 79 points. Then there’s rookie Tomas Hertl, who was one of the most explosive players early this season, but his campaign got derailed because of a knee injury that required surgery.

He’s back now and probably wouldn’t mind some poetic justice, given that it was Kings captain Dustin Brown that sidelined him with a knee-on-knee hit.

The Kings aren’t devoid of guys that can answer though. Anze Kopitar had another great year with 29 goals and 70 points in 82 games. Meanwhile, Marian Gaborik has provided them with a boost by scoring five goals and 16 points in 19 contests since being acquired by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

At the same time, Brown and Mike Richards had rough campaigns and the Kings look a bit thin when they’re not at their best. The Kings’ recent track record of playoff success trumps the Sharks, but I think San Jose’s strong top-six will help them best Los Angeles in seven games this time around.

Joe Pavelski had seven goals and 12 points in his last nine regular season games. That helped him reach and surpass the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career.

WHO'S NOT

Antti Niemi allowed at least three goals in four of his last seven contests. He had a 2.39 GAA and .913 save percentage in 64 starts this season.

NOTES

Matt Nieto has temporarily been assigned to the ECHL so that he can be close to his mother, who is scheduled to have cancer-related surgery. When he's ready to return, he might play on the second line with Marleau and Couture.

The Sharks have the second longest active postseason appearance streak at 10 seasons. Of those with an active streak of at least five seasons, San Jose is the only team that hasn't won the Stanley Cup during the run.

Marian Gaborik has three goals and 12 points in his last 10 contests. He never really jelled with the Columbus Blue Jackets, in part due to injuries, but he certainly has found his groove with the Kings.

WHO'S NOT

Mike Richards is taking a nine-game point drought into the playoffs. He had 11 goals and 41 points in 82 games this season.

NOTES

The Kings won their first Jennings Trophy this season. Two of the last three winners reached the Stanley Cup Final and last year's winner, Chicago, won it all.

Los Angeles is relatively healthy, but they might have one glaring omission as Drew Doughty (upper body) missed the final four games of the regular season.

With a power-play success rate of just 15.1%, the Kings are the worst team with the man advantage among those that advanced to the postseason. They were much more respectable when it came to killing penalties as they ranked 11th in the league.

ST. LOUIS BLUES VERSUS CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

It wasn’t that long ago the St. Louis Blues looked like a serious Stanley Cup contender. They had a balanced offense, arguably the strongest defense in the league, and then they added star goaltender Ryan Miller from the Buffalo Sabres.

What a difference a couple weeks can make. The Blues limped into the playoffs, dropping their last six games and scoring just five goals in that span. St. Louis didn’t find the back of the net in the last 143:59 minutes of its regular season.

The 2013-14 Chicago Blackhawks look just as good as the team that won it all last year. They were missing Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane as the season winded down, but both will be back for the playoff opener.

If the Blues are mostly healthy in time for Game 1, then this could be a battle of the titans. The winner of this one will be a strong contender to go all the way.

There’s no guarantee that’s what we’ll get though and given that the Blackhawks don’t have nearly as many question marks and are loaded with proven winners, I’m picking them to win in six.

ST. LOUIS

Please note that the Blues were missing a huge chunk of their scoring forwards in the final days of the regular season. It's not clear who will or won't be available, making it difficult to project the Blues lines. Rather than guess at who will be available, we created these lines as if everyone but Vladimir Tarasenko (hand surgery) was healthy:

Jeremy Morin scored four goals and six points in six April games. That run accounts for more than half of his points this season.

WHO'S NOT

Kris Versteeg registered two assists in his final nine contests of the 2013-14 campaign. He had 10 goals and 29 points in 63 games since the Chicago Blackhawks acquired him from the Florida Panthers.

NOTES

Chicago finished second in the league with an average of 3.18 goals per game.

When the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2013, they had a .704 winning percentage in one-goal games during the shortened season. They had just a .425 winning percentage in 2013-14 in contests that were decided by just one marker.

Chicago has won the Stanley Cup in two of its previous four playoff runs, but they lost in the first round the other two times.

COLORADO AVALANCHE VERSUS MINNESOTA WILD

The Colorado Avalanche looked like they were going nowhere fast under former Avalanche coach Joe Sacco. That wasn’t entirely his fault, but swapping him out for Patrick Roy seemed to make a world of difference.

The team that just won the Central Division isn’t fundamentally different from the one that went 16-25-7 in the shortened campaign, but guys seemed to respond a lot better to the Hall of Famer. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov was the best example of that as he flourished under the mentoring of Roy and goalie coach Francois Allaire.

Varlamov had a 2.41 GAA and .927 save percentage in 63 games while facing a staggering 2,013 shots this season – far more than any other goaltender. In some ways, this series might actually be easy for him by comparison as Minnesota ranked 24th in the league with 2.43 goals per game and got less shots on net than every team but Buffalo.

That being said, this series will be a big test for the Avalanche. The Wild have some superb top-end talent like Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, and Ryan Suter. If the enigma that is Ilya Bryzgalov can continue to shine – as he has been since the Minnesota Wild acquired him in March – then they could unravel the relatively inexperienced Avalanche.

That’s especially true given that Colorado has been hit with the injury bug and doesn’t have top forward Matt Duchene (knee).

It’s worth adding that there is some pressure on Minnesota, even though they are coming into this with the significantly inferior record. Expectations in Minnesota jumped when they signed Suter and Parise, but they lost in the first round last season and another quick exit might not sit well with a franchise that’s trying to position itself as a series Stanley Cup contender.

Of the teams that made the playoffs, the Wild's penalty kill was worst in the regular season with a 78.8% success rate.

ANAHEIM DUCKS VERSUS DALLAS STARS

This is the third time in four years that the Anaheim Ducks have made the playoffs and the second in a row that they’ve captured their division, but they haven’t won a playoff series over that span. The stage seems set for that to change.

They had two of the best forwards this season in Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, who ranked second and fifth in the scoring race respectively.

Although this was one of the better campaigns the duo has ever had, they’ve been stars for years. The problem Anaheim had in the past was that they didn’t have the depth to back them up. That wasn’t the case in 2013-14. The Ducks are going into this series with 10 different players that recorded at least 10 goals and four that surpassed the 20-goal mark.

That’s led to them being the best offense team of the season with an average of 3.21 goals per game. Of course, the Dallas Stars are no slouch in that regard either as they finished 10th with an average of 2.82 goals.

Dallas is hoping that its young duo of Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn can match up against Anaheim’s big two. That’s not an entirely unreasonable gamble, given that Seguin and Benn were only a step behind their Ducks counterparts in the regular season. The deeper into the Stars roster you get though, the harder it is to see them stacking up.

The X-Factor in this series is Teemu Selanne, who has averaged just 14:07 minutes per game. Even at the age of 43, Selanne showed he’s still capable of carrying a team when given the chance while playing for Finland in the 2014 Winter Games. In his last playoff run, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him step up despite a quiet regular season.

After losing to the Detroit Red Wings in seven games in 2013, the Anaheim Ducks should only need five games to advance this time around.

Corey Perry had four goals and seven points in his last six games. He ranked second in the league with 43 goals this season.

WHO'S NOT

Jonas Hiller allowed 11 goals in his last three games. He also has a 3.01 GAA and .889 save percentage in 11 starts since the Olympics.

NOTES

Sheld Souray missed the 2013-14 campaign with a wrist injury. Defenseman Mark Fistric is dealing with a lower-body injury while forward Tim Jackman isn't likely to participate in the first round due to a broken hand.

The Ducks ranked second in the league with a 5-on-5 goals for/against ratio of 1.39. That was fortunate for them because they were just 22nd with the man advantage and 13th when it came to killing penalties.

The Dallas Stars failed to make the playoffs for five straight seasons from 2008-09 through 2012-13, which represents the franchise's longest drought since they debut in 1967-68 as the Minnesota North Stars.

LOS ANGELES KING VERSUS SAN JOSE SHARKS

This is the third time in four years that the Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks are meeting in the playoffs. Both have taken a series, with the Sharks winning in six in 2011 and the Kings coming ahead in seven in 2013. Last year’s series was particularly entertaining with five of the seven contests being decided by just one goal.

Jonathan Quick was the difference in 2013 and the Kings need that to be the case again this year. He was the sole winner of the Jennings Trophy, which goes to the goaltender(s) that play in at least 25 games with the team that allows the fewest goals in the regular season, and he’s got a reputation for elevating his game in the playoffs.

As usual, the San Jose Sharks will be countering with a strong offense, but the dynamics of it are a bit different this time around. Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau were dominant, per the norm, but Joe Pavelski broke out with 41 goals and 79 points. Then there’s rookie Tomas Hertl, who was one of the most explosive players early this season, but his campaign got derailed because of a knee injury that required surgery.

He’s back now and probably wouldn’t mind some poetic justice, given that it was Kings captain Dustin Brown that sidelined him with a knee-on-knee hit.

The Kings aren’t devoid of guys that can answer though. Anze Kopitar had another great year with 29 goals and 70 points in 82 games. Meanwhile, Marian Gaborik has provided them with a boost by scoring five goals and 16 points in 19 contests since being acquired by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

At the same time, Brown and Mike Richards had rough campaigns and the Kings look a bit thin when they’re not at their best. The Kings’ recent track record of playoff success trumps the Sharks, but I think San Jose’s strong top-six will help them best Los Angeles in seven games this time around.

Joe Pavelski had seven goals and 12 points in his last nine regular season games. That helped him reach and surpass the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career.

WHO'S NOT

Antti Niemi allowed at least three goals in four of his last seven contests. He had a 2.39 GAA and .913 save percentage in 64 starts this season.

NOTES

Matt Nieto has temporarily been assigned to the ECHL so that he can be close to his mother, who is scheduled to have cancer-related surgery. When he's ready to return, he might play on the second line with Marleau and Couture.

The Sharks have the second longest active postseason appearance streak at 10 seasons. Of those with an active streak of at least five seasons, San Jose is the only team that hasn't won the Stanley Cup during the run.

Marian Gaborik has three goals and 12 points in his last 10 contests. He never really jelled with the Columbus Blue Jackets, in part due to injuries, but he certainly has found his groove with the Kings.

WHO'S NOT

Mike Richards is taking a nine-game point drought into the playoffs. He had 11 goals and 41 points in 82 games this season.

NOTES

The Kings won their first Jennings Trophy this season. Two of the last three winners reached the Stanley Cup Final and last year's winner, Chicago, won it all.

Los Angeles is relatively healthy, but they might have one glaring omission as Drew Doughty (upper body) missed the final four games of the regular season.

With a power-play success rate of just 15.1%, the Kings are the worst team with the man advantage among those that advanced to the postseason. They were much more respectable when it came to killing penalties as they ranked 11th in the league.

ST. LOUIS BLUES VERSUS CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS

It wasn’t that long ago the St. Louis Blues looked like a serious Stanley Cup contender. They had a balanced offense, arguably the strongest defense in the league, and then they added star goaltender Ryan Miller from the Buffalo Sabres.

What a difference a couple weeks can make. The Blues limped into the playoffs, dropping their last six games and scoring just five goals in that span. St. Louis didn’t find the back of the net in the last 143:59 minutes of its regular season.

The 2013-14 Chicago Blackhawks look just as good as the team that won it all last year. They were missing Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane as the season winded down, but both will be back for the playoff opener.

If the Blues are mostly healthy in time for Game 1, then this could be a battle of the titans. The winner of this one will be a strong contender to go all the way.

There’s no guarantee that’s what we’ll get though and given that the Blackhawks don’t have nearly as many question marks and are loaded with proven winners, I’m picking them to win in six.

ST. LOUIS

Please note that the Blues were missing a huge chunk of their scoring forwards in the final days of the regular season. It's not clear who will or won't be available, making it difficult to project the Blues lines. Rather than guess at who will be available, we created these lines as if everyone but Vladimir Tarasenko (hand surgery) was healthy:

Jeremy Morin scored four goals and six points in six April games. That run accounts for more than half of his points this season.

WHO'S NOT

Kris Versteeg registered two assists in his final nine contests of the 2013-14 campaign. He had 10 goals and 29 points in 63 games since the Chicago Blackhawks acquired him from the Florida Panthers.

NOTES

Chicago finished second in the league with an average of 3.18 goals per game.

When the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2013, they had a .704 winning percentage in one-goal games during the shortened season. They had just a .425 winning percentage in 2013-14 in contests that were decided by just one marker.

Chicago has won the Stanley Cup in two of its previous four playoff runs, but they lost in the first round the other two times.

COLORADO AVALANCHE VERSUS MINNESOTA WILD

The Colorado Avalanche looked like they were going nowhere fast under former Avalanche coach Joe Sacco. That wasn’t entirely his fault, but swapping him out for Patrick Roy seemed to make a world of difference.

The team that just won the Central Division isn’t fundamentally different from the one that went 16-25-7 in the shortened campaign, but guys seemed to respond a lot better to the Hall of Famer. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov was the best example of that as he flourished under the mentoring of Roy and goalie coach Francois Allaire.

Varlamov had a 2.41 GAA and .927 save percentage in 63 games while facing a staggering 2,013 shots this season – far more than any other goaltender. In some ways, this series might actually be easy for him by comparison as Minnesota ranked 24th in the league with 2.43 goals per game and got less shots on net than every team but Buffalo.

That being said, this series will be a big test for the Avalanche. The Wild have some superb top-end talent like Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, and Ryan Suter. If the enigma that is Ilya Bryzgalov can continue to shine – as he has been since the Minnesota Wild acquired him in March – then they could unravel the relatively inexperienced Avalanche.

That’s especially true given that Colorado has been hit with the injury bug and doesn’t have top forward Matt Duchene (knee).

It’s worth adding that there is some pressure on Minnesota, even though they are coming into this with the significantly inferior record. Expectations in Minnesota jumped when they signed Suter and Parise, but they lost in the first round last season and another quick exit might not sit well with a franchise that’s trying to position itself as a series Stanley Cup contender.